Souness warns Gordon's £70m Barcelona move is under threat after timid World Cup displays

Graeme Souness has warned that Anthony Gordon’s £70 million move to Barcelona could quickly unravel if the winger continues to perform as cautiously as he has in England’s opening World Cup group games.

Gordon completed his high-profile switch from Newcastle to the Catalan giants ahead of the tournament, becoming one of several prominent English players to move abroad. The 23-year-old arrives off the back of the best goalscoring season of his career — 17 goals for Newcastle — but his displays in England’s games against Croatia and Ghana have drawn criticism.

Writing in the Telegraph, Souness was blunt in his assessment. “It is absolutely fair to say they will have watched their new £70m winger Anthony Gordon in England’s opening group games and wondered what they have bought,” he said. “If Gordon turns up in Barcelona and plays as conservatively as he did against Croatia and Ghana then he will not be staying in Catalonia for too long.”

Central to Souness’s argument is the standard set by Barcelona’s own Lamine Yamal, who scored against Saudi Arabia and has provided a vivid template for what the club expects from a wide player. “Lamine Yamal is the template for a Barcelona winger,” Souness wrote. “You are kidding yourself if you don’t think everyone around Barcelona, from fans to the media to the players, isn’t watching and saying: ‘If Yamal is doing that, what is Gordon doing?’”

England manager Thomas Tuchel acknowledged that Gordon and the left-sided unit had not replicated the form they showed in pre-tournament warm-up games. “We had a very good match against Costa Rica with Anthony and the unit,” Tuchel said. “The unit on the left side hasn’t provided the same quality as they did against Costa Rica.”

Tuchel’s framing of the issue as a collective rather than individual failing offers Gordon some cover, but Souness’s warning reflects a broader concern: that the scrutiny at the Nou Camp will be relentless, and that a player who thrived in the Premier League will need to show considerably more ambition to justify his fee in Spain.